Avatar: Earthbound Legacy Book One: Avatar vs Vaatar
by fadfadas
Summary: The new Avatar has arrived! In the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se the Avatar is 18 and hasn't revealed himself. Only one other person knows Nick is the Avatat: Nilak, his childhood friend and water-bending teacher. Nick was going to reveal himself when he was ready, but when a fake Avatar steals his title, he and Nilak go to expose the fake (and how they really feel about each other).
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The New Avatar**

My name is Nick. I was born in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se. I'm sixteen and my birthday is April 3rd, the same day that Avatar Korra died. Now, I know that just being born on the same day the Avatar died doesn't mean I'm the Avatar, but I think the fact that I can water-bend in addition to earth-bending makes me a pretty prime candidate.

Anyways I have black hair with brown eyes and, as my uncle says, I'm "built like a tank". I usually just wear a black t-shirt with and a pair of baggy sweatpants. I spend most of my time either in the gym or with my water-bender friend, Nilak.

She looks more like her white mother than her water-tribe father, but usually wears water tribe clothes. It complements her blue eyes and brown hair. She she's usually quiet around people she doesn't know, but once you get close to her she's the nicest person ever (until you piss her off). She's also the only person I told about being the avatar.

On my way home from the gym she came running up to me in a panic.

"What the hell happened to you?" I asked.

"A-Avatar," she managed, struggling to catch her breath.

"I told you not to call me that." I started to turn away, but she grabbed my arm.

"Not you. On TV."

I carried her halfway back to her place before she started walking again.

"What's this about the Avatar on TV?" I asked. "Like some Avatar Korra thing you always get excited about?"

"No," she said. "There's some guy claiming to be the Avatar on TV. How have you not seen it?"

"Maybe because I don't have a TV at my house."

"Yeah, but still. You must've heard some people on the street talking about it."

"I don't listen to other people's conversations."

"Ugh, whatever. He's doing a demonstration in—" she checked the time on her phone "—oh crap ten minutes!"

We raced through the crowd, knocking over a few people and a cabbage cart, but made it with not a minute to spare.

The guy had black hair and a brown eyes. He had a pointed chin and devious smile. His red shirt had a contradicting Earth Kingdom symbol on it. He was also wearing jeans, which in my experience aren't good for water or earth bending.

"My name is Fey Sensu, and here's proof that I'm the Avatar." He stomped on the floor to lift up a chunk of rock and then shot fire at it.

"I haven't been able to use the other elements," he said. "But I think being able to bend two elements should be proof enough. Thank you."

The rest of the show was a little background of where he grew up and stuff like that and debate from bending masters and Pro-Benders, but I didn't stick around to watch that.

"Thanks for showing me this, Nilak." I got up and walked out of the door.

It wasn't too uncommon for minors such as myself to live alone, so there was no one to stop my plan to leave and confront this fraud. I packed a bag and headed out.

"Nicholas Lao Hiroshi!" Okay, maybe there was one person to stop my plans, and that was Nilak.

I turned and got the surprise of my life: Nilak had a packed bag too.

"Do you really think I'm not going with you?"

I put up an earth wall between us.

Nilak apparently also had a water skin because she covered her feet in ice and flew over the wall I made. She tried to teach me how to do that, but temperature control didn't come as easily to me as it did to her. Balance was another thing, though. If I hadn't been there she would have broken her skull on the ground coming down.

"I think my payment for saving your life should be you going back home," I told her, not even realizing I hadn't put her down.

"Sorry," she said, "but that payment's a little too steep."

We looked into each other's eyes until realizing how long we were doing it and I quickly put Nilak on her feet.

"So…" she said when her blush went away. "We heading out or what?"

"What about your parents?"

"I disappear like this all the time," she looked to the sky. "It's not like they ever care…"

"Well," I tried to pick her spirits up as fast as possible. "Let's head out, then."

It took us all day to get to the Middle Ring (thought that's partly because I took almost every wrong turn possible).

"So you want to get a hotel or something or just sleep on the streets?" I asked Nilak as the sun set.

"Let's see how much it is first," she said, not taking her eyes away from the cheap (but still better than what's in the Lower Ring's best shops) water tribe jewelry.

"If you blow all your money on jewelry you won't have enough for your own room."

She looked me in the eyes with a blush. "We aren't sharing a room?"

"Well, I, uh… I mean, I just thought that you'd be more comfortable with your own room."

She put on her best overdramatic act with her hand on her forehead, "But how will I survive the night without the Avatar protecting me?"

"Shut up and help me find the hotel."

We stayed the night in a hotel that left us with just enough money to eat the next day.

"You know how much longer it's gonna take us to get to the Upper Ring?" Nilak asked after we left the hotel.

"Not much longer if we can find the monorail," I told her.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the monorail. Wait, why didn't we take that from the beginning?"

"I wanted to, but you insisted on coming along. If I wanted to go by myself I could afford one ticket, but you didn't have that much money so two tickets from the Lower to Upper Ring would be more than both of us had combined. From here we should have just enough."

"Then let's find it!"

Another hour of searching before we found the monorail. The next one going to the Upper Ring would be thirty minutes.

"Hey kid," a guy waiting for a train asked us. He was at least 6 foot with a body more muscular than mine. Before I could react he covered me and Nilak's hands and feet with rocks. "That broad's ours now." Two more men came up and grabbed Nilak.

I broke free of the rocks and ran at the man. I tried to punch him, but he caught my fist.

"It's too late. We already have her."

I looked back and the other men were almost out of sight. I lost control. I slid the ground under the first man and hit him with another rock from the wall. While blood trickled out of his head I used fire bending to shoot myself through the crowd to Nilak. I used a rock from the ground to hit one in the chest, and while the other was trying to figure out how I used fire and earth bending I threw him into the wall.

When I got control of my body back I saw a woman with long brown hair and dark skin. She was wearing a light blue shirt and what looked like an animal pelt around her waist with dark blue pants.

"Hello, new Avatar," the woman said. She had a serious tone, but with a hint of playfulness.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Korra. And I know what you're thinking, and yes, that was the Avatar State. You shouldn't use it against such weak people though. Although I do understand protecting your girlfriend."

"She's not my—"

"Whatever. Well, there's no hiding it anymore. Your Avatar training is about to start."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Rogue Training**

The first thing I did after getting control of my body back was grab Nilak and get out of there. She came to after we got out of the station. The first thing she did was slap me across the face because it was hidden in her chest. It was the only way to stop as many people as possible from seeing my face.

I went straight to the nearest clothing store and bought two hoodies with large hoods.

I tossed the blue one to Nilak and put the grey one on.

"This is way too big," Nilak said. "This better not be because you think I'm getting fat!"

"It's not," I said as I zipped mine up. "You look great. It's just easier to hide your face when it's bigger."

"Oh," she started blushing. "Uh, thanks."

"Yeah. Now let's get moving. The cops are probably already questioning people at the train station so we should avoid there. The best description they're gonna get before the creeps wake up is a guy with his face in a water tribe girl's chest."

She slapped me again. "They'd better not say that!"

"It was just a joke," I said as I rubbed my left cheek. "We should get out of the city though."

"Yeah, 'cause that's just so easy. Having to dodge cops and everything else is hard enough, but once we get out of Ba Sing Se there's desert for miles. How do you suppose we fix that?"

"I was thinking of getting two tickets to Republic City on an airship."

"How do we do that with no money and cops searching for us?"

"We'll have to come clean. If the Avatar reveals himself they'll have no choice but to send us on a one way trip to Republic City for training."

"You mean you."

"Not if the Avatar say's he won't go without the love of his life."

"'Love of your life'?" She was redder than raw boar-q-pine meat.

"Yeah," I was getting as red as she was. "I mean, I'm sure they won't let just anyone go with me, but the love of my life should be a fine plus-one."

"Oh," she tried to hide the disappointment in her voice. "Yeah. I was worried for a second there."

"Yeah… well there's no point waiting around here. Let's find the local news station. I'm sure they'd be willing to pay a pretty penny for this scoop."

* * *

The news station kept us waiting in a small room for a while, but I just played on my phone for most of the time; Angry Rooster Pigeons is good for passing time.

"Nick," Nilak asked after I beat several levels. "Why'd you bring up the love of your life thing?"

"What?" I said, not looking up from my game. "Oh, uh, like I said, they probably won't let just anyone come with me, but the love—"

"No, I mean, why the love of your life? There are so many other things you could have said, childhood friend, relative, or—"

"I could have." I put my phone in my pocket. "But maybe they'd only let my girlfriend come with me."

"But that's the thing, I'm not your—"

I kissed her. A nice long kiss that made us both forget about time until the secretary came in.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, stepping behind the door. "We're ready for you."

When we got to the reporter's office we told her the entire story. She wrote down everything we said and didn't respond until we were done.

"You two have certainly spent a lot of time on this story," she said. "But I'm afraid the Avatar has already been revealed, so—"

"Actually that Avatar is a fraud," I said. "And here's some proof." I levitated her drink out of the cup.

"You can water-bend." The reporter says. "That makes you a bender, not the Avatar."

 _Korra,_ I thought. _If you're still in here, I'm gonna need your help. Just help me fire-bend. I haven't been able to do it on my own, but you did it at the station, so please, just help me out this once._

I made a punching motion towards the orb hovering between the reporter and I, but no fire came out. I tried again but still nothing.

"Okay, so fire isn't my strong suit, but if you have any rocks or—"

"I think we're done here. Thank you for wasting my time, now I've got other stories to cover."

"Wait," I had to think fast. She'd seen my water-bending, so any of the other three would do. _I got it!_ "Ma'am, is a meteor fragment on your necklace?"

"Yes, but you can't bend it. My husband got it for me three years ago, and I haven't gone a day without wearing it since.

"What about the stone in your desk?" _How'd I sense that?_

"You can sense that? Maybe you can earth-bend." She pulled out a large red rock.

"This was a gift from my brother. You can bend it, but if you break it so help me—"

"Got it," I said. "Bend, don't break." I slammed my fist down on my armrest and the rock shot up two feet.

"Well," the reporter said, extremely impressed. "I guess that Avatar is a fake. I'll contact my friend in Republic City immediately."

Whoever the reporter contacted was apparently very close to Avatar Korra, because she was able to get us our own private airship. It was the perfect size; four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a room with a couch, TV, and connected kitchen, and a cockpit. There were also two flight attendants.

"Right this way Mr. Hiroshi, Ms. Tikaani." One of the flight attendants said as we walked into the ship.

The ride to Republic City wasn't too long. The flight attendants went to their rooms, which gave Nilak and I time to talk. I didn't really want to at first, so I turned on the TV while she glared at me.

After a few minutes I turned it off and said, "I'm sorry."

"What?" she asked. "Why are you sorry?"

"For dragging you to Republic City with me, for almost getting you kidnapped, and for, you know, at the news place."

"Nick, this past week I found out my parents were moving to the Middle Ring, I would have to go with them or be homeless, someone stole my best friend's destiny, I almost got kidnapped, and now I'm on an airship to Republic City."

"You're moving?"

"Yeah, but not to the Middle Ring. To Republic City." She kissed me. "And if any of it hadn't happened, I wouldn't have had the perfect kiss with the guy I've liked for years."

"How many years?"

"You remember when you went to prom freshman year with the fire-bending senior?"

"Wow. Makes me wish I had the courage to ask you to prom last year."

"So, you too?"

"Ever since we were kids." I quickly kissed her, not wanting my lips to forget the feeling of hers.

When she broke the kiss she asked, "So why didn't you ever do anything?"

"You act like asking a girl out is the easiest thing in the world."

"Well I would have said yes. That's why I didn't say yes to Arrluk until you told me you were going with Akane."

"Well, we have now. And there's another plus to my water-bending girlfriend coming with me."

"Oh," she gave me a quick kiss. "What's that?"

"Well seeing as I'm the Avatar they'll want to give me the best teachers, right? That means I'll get the best water-benders in the city to teach me. And I don't think they'll mind too much if you join in on the teaching."

Over the speakers we heard, "This is your captain speaking. We caught a nice tailwind and will be arriving in thirty minutes."


End file.
